Folkestone came out of this hanging on to 3rd place in the table only a point above Ashford

Dartfordians 29 v Folkestone 19
2nd November 2013 Report from Alan Schofield.

Folkestone went into this game having played 6 league games, are at the top of the table, four points clear, unbeaten and scoring an average of 40 points. They came out of it hanging on to 3rd place in the table only a point above Ashford.
And yet they had a 14 – 0 lead on the verge of half-time and were looking fairly comfortable playing 75% of the rugby in their opponents half.
Dartfordians were promoted this season and the last time Folkestone visited their pleasant ground at Bexley was four years ago when they came away with an empathic victory. Not so this time!
The opponents looked to have a heavier pack and an early scrum showed that they had the weight to push Folkestone back. But recovering from that, Tolman set the game firmly into the Dartfordians half with a 40 metre kick into space. The forwards dominated a series of rucks and mauls until Petley broke, fed the ball to Tolman who had a clean break to run in the try under the posts after only 7 minutes. Fell converted for a 7 – 0 lead.
Two penalty attempts by Dartfordians both missed and play briefly went into the Folkestone half - but very soon Eustace charged down a kick and followed up with Stewart and Baxter to put the play firmly back in the opposition half.
Interestingly, in the set scrums, Folkestone now used a better scrummaging technique led by captain – Moose Murray - and were able to hold and push back a heavy eight man shove against them. Line outs were going with the throw, and Kevin Murray was a safe pair of hands for Folkestone.
Petley recovered an adventurous fly kick with some very good individual defending and the whole team looked lively, and fairly comfortable – made even more so when Stewart started a three-quarter movement across the field when Dagger and Fell combined with Cox to put Bowen in for a converted try and a 14 – 0 lead after 38 minutes.
From the restart, Stewart was yellow carded, with his opposite number, for a minor wrestling match – but Dartfordians were given the penalty from which they scored a good try on the left which was converted. And - almost immediately from the kick off they gained possession from poor handling and scored a wingers try from 60 metres to equal the score at 14 – 14 at half time.

Now, Dartfordians were back in the game and in the ascendency – they narrowly missed a penalty to give them the lead and Folkestone were on the defence, and making a series of mistakes and misjudgements.
Individual players tried solo efforts, but were tackled man and ball – often losing the latter, passes went astray and touch kicks didn’t carry - all passing possession to a Dartfordians team who were playing as a solid team. After 10 minutes of the second half Folkestone failed a long touch attempt to clear their lines – and the Dartfordians full back ran through most of the faltering opposition to score under the posts to send the home team into an 21 – 14 lead.
Folkestone were rattled and frustrated by their failure to impose the fast interplay that has brought them to the top of the league. Dartfordians were too good to miss out on the chances given to them. Another opportunist try snapped up from a loose ball gave them a 26 – 14 lead and a bonus point for their fourth try of the game.
After an hour of play, coach Darren Molloy brought on substitutes Turner, Carvill and Randall to replace Baxter, Roots and Murray – but it failed to disturb Dartfordians. But after a period of defence Folkestone did, for once, break through to set up an attack from which a superb three-quarter move with the ball cleanly passed down the line through Eustace and Morton – to Dagger who fed Fell to score a superb try on the right wing. Ironically this was the best try of the match and 26 – 19 gave Folkestone a glimmer of hope for at least a draw.
Randall and Cox tried individual runs and Morton cut inside to try to break through. But Dartfordians were ready for all of this. Folkestone were predictable and missed a number of opportunities when overlaps were created, but rather than pass, players tried to make their breaks through the centre – only to meet with solid tackles.
Dartfordians sealed the game from a strong attack when the Folkestone forwards were offside on the 22 metre line which was kicked over for a final score of 29 – 19.
Folkestone will have to talk amongst themselves as to why they lost this game to a side who looked eminently beatable in the first half – but they could well reach the conclusion that whilst teamwork, individual flare and fast interplay makes for good and exciting rugby but, if it’s not working, then they must have a Plan B.
Next week they are in a home game against Horsham, the new league leaders.
Team: A Seyhan Fell; Richard Dagger, Jon Morton, John Eustace, Richie Bowen; Adam Tolman, Jordan Godden; Martin Murray (Capt), Jack Cox, Mat Roots; Kevin Murray, Scott Stewart; Dave Baxter, Chris Petley, Michael Gardener.
Subs: Tom Carvill, Alex Randall, Will Turner.

See Dartfordians take on the game https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/dartfordians/s/match-centre-354/1-739364